Originally published Feb. 5, 2014 in El Estoque.
In my family, day trips are always structured around food. While most people decide what attractions to visit and then search for restaurants nearby; we decide what restaurants to eat at and then search for attractions nearby. We have our priorities straight.
Anyway, in January, my family visited Monterey. The day before, my brother and I scoped out the food situation on Yelp. I discovered one promising Italian place and pointed it out to him.
“No,” he scoffed, “that one has less than four stars.”
“Three and a half,” I said. “That’s basically the same thing as four.”
“No,” he said, adding — and I’m not kidding, this is something he actually said — “I don’t allow sub-four-star experiences into my life.”
Admit it: You, too, have a filter. It may not be quite as explicit as my brother’s, but you have one. Maybe you refuse to watch movies that score less than 30 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Maybe you don’t buy items that have fewer than 15 reviews on Amazon. Or maybe you won’t even consider applying to colleges that aren’t in the US News & World Report Top 50.
Ratings and rankings permeate every aspect of our lives, to the point where it starts to become impossible to distinguish our real opinions from the opinions advocated by complete strangers on the Internet. Our opinions constitute a vital role in our identities — I think, therefore I am, and what I think is what I am. The proliferation of review culture threatens our individuality, our sense of self.
And that’s exactly the issue we wanted to tackle in our Special Report, which starts on page 25. In a world with limitless options, why do we allow ourselves to be confined to a preapproved set of choices? And how do we break out of that confinement?
We discussed literary merit with sophomore Samantha Shieh, who is among that rare species that still browses for unrecommended and often unheard of books at the library. We talked to senior Lilac Cadouri, who is straying far off the beaten path: After graduating, she plans to join the Israeli army. We used random website generators to discover what is hiding on the Internet.
And what did we find? The stuff that gets lost due to our tunnel vision.
In order to have any richness in your life, you have to let those sub-four-star experiences in. Because everybody else’s four-star experience could be your one-star experience, and everybody else’s one-star experience could be your four-star experience. You can’t use other people’s opinions to define your own. Well, you can — but what a silly way to live.
My family ended up choosing a Mexican restaurant that scored four stars based on 310 reviews. We couldn’t find space on the street in front of it, so we parked in a lot a few blocks away. As we were walking, we ran across a hip-looking cafe. My parents suggested eating there instead — and the irony hit me hard, that we have somehow become far less spontaneous than our supposedly stodgy parents — so I let go and went in.
The restaurant was small and unassuming. The food was delicious. I did not look it up on Yelp, either before or after.
I give spontaneity five stars.
Amrutha Dorai 